The Quotes canon
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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
The Renaissance11 quotes
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once. — William Shakespeare · 1599Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other. — Francis Bacon · 1625Is it sin to rush into the secret house of death
Ere death dare come to us? — William Shakespeare · 1607Age will not be defied. — Francis Bacon · 1625He that dies pays all debts. — William Shakespeare · 1616It comes equally to us all, and makes us all equal. — John Donne · 1621All 11 quotes →Classical antiquity10 quotes
I should rather labor as another's serf, in the home of a man without fortune, one whose livelihood was meager, than rule over all the departed dead. — Homer · 700 BCTo fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. — Socrates · 399 BCEither death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another. Now if death be of such a nature, I say that to die is to gain; for eternity is then only a single night. — Socrates · 339 BCDeath, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are death is not come, and when death is come, we are not. — Epicurus · 240Death is, you see, one or the other of two things: either to be dead is to be non-existent, as it were, and a dead person has no awareness of anything at all; or else, as we are told, the soul undergoes some sort of transformation, or exchanging of this present world for another. — Socrates · 399 BCTherefore death is nothing to us, it matters not one jot, since the nature of the mind is understood to be mortal. — Lucretius · 55 BCAll 10 quotes →Old Testament Era6 quotes
For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even their name is forgotten. — Ecclesiastes 9:5 · 931 BCThe dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence. — Psalm 115:17 · 450 BCAs he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand. — Ecclesiastes 5:15 · 931 BCHe will swallow up death forever, And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces; The rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth; For the Lord has spoken. — Isaiah 25:8 · 681 BCPrepare to meet thy God. — Amos 4:12 · 750 BCThen shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. — Ecclesiastes 12:7 · 931 BCNew Testament Era5 quotes
He gave up the ghost. — Luke 23:46 · 61O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? — Apostle Paul · 55What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? — Apostle Paul · 56Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned. — Apostle Paul · 56Behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. — Revelation 6:8 · 90Age of Enlightenment3 quotes
Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully. — Samuel Johnson · 1777How often are we to die before we go quite off this stage? In every friend we lose a part of ourselves, and the best part. — Alexander Pope · 1732O Death! the poor man's dearest friend,
The kindest and the best! — Robert Burns · 1784Ancient World3 quotes
Invisible before birth are all beings and after death invisible again. They are seen between two unseens. Why in this truth find sorrow? — Bhagavad Gita · 200 BCAs a man leaves an old garment and puts on one that is new, the spirit leaves his mortal body and puts on one that is new. — Bhagavad Gita · 200 BCIf any man thinks he slays, and if another thinks he is slain, neither knows the ways of truth. The Eternal in man cannot kill: the Eternal in man cannot die. He is never born, and he never dies. He is in Eternity, he is for evermore. Never-born and eternal, beyond times gone or to come, he does not die when the body dies. — Bhagavad Gita · 200 BCAncient Egypt2 quotes
There is no one who returns from beyond
that he may tell of their state
that he may tell of their lot
that he may set our hearts at ease
until we make our journey
to the place where they have gone. — Harper's Songs · 1700 BCRemember: it is not given to man to take his goods with him.
No one goes away and then comes back. — The Song of the Harper · 2600 BC